I was able to view the Waning Gibbous Moon (it was full yesterday) and Jupiter over the western horizon while experiencing intermittent thunderstorms. The pair was striking as they appeared to be floating between cumulus clouds over the western horizon. The Moon was approximately 5 degrees and Jupiter ~10 degrees above the western horizon. I hope that others got a look at the pair as well.

I was able to observe the Waning Gibbous Moon (15.7 days old) and Jupiter (-2.84m) rising over the eastern horizon tonight (August 7, 2009 at 01:00 U.T (( PM EDT)). The Moon was now east of Jupiter and both objects were approximately 6 degrees above the eastern horizon. The Moon exhibited a glow around it which added to the scene. I hope that others were able to view this as well.

Attached Files

Wonderful on both observations. They line up very nicely with what I have observed out of the upper windows in our master bedroom.

The moon tonight where I live had a very yellowish hint tonight with Jupiter to the west of the Moon from a series of fires that were sparked off today. Now were clouded in due to a cold front that is passing through. Thank you for sharing these.

I am glad that you could observe and share it with us, as it has also been quite cloudy here in Portland for the past several days, we missed it. I like the varying blue skies that you sketched into the scene.

Carlos these naked eye sketches of the Moon and Jupiter are simply spectacular! I noticed the first one was done using GIMP and the second using Photoshop. How would you compare them? Are there particular advantages of one over the other?

Carlos,Wonderful sketches!I was out on the 7th with my 10X70 Nikons and your sketches remind me of my view. Thank you...I had no way of capturing the moment but in the future, I'll look at your sketches and remember that night.Robert

Thank you all very much for the kind compliments on my Moon and Jupiter conjunction observations. I was fortunate to have observed them considering my poor weather lately (clouds and thunderstorms, but at least no hurricane yet). I try to render the colors that I observe as accurately as possible, as we all do. I enjoy observing conjunctions whenever possible. I hope that you all get to see them as well.

Rich- I have used Adobe Photoshop for some time now. Photoshop is the industry standard as it is loaded with every tool an artist/photographer may need for image manipulation. The problem with Photoshop is that it has a high learning curve to master this phenomenal program, if at all possible considering all of it's many features. GIMP is a very competent image processing software and best of all it is free. GIMP has been compared to Photoshop but more accurately to one of the older versions (maybe versions 4 or 5). This says a great deal if one is able to compare their program to Photoshop at all. In my opinion GIMP is more than adequate for the majority of people out there for their image manipulation needs, but if they can afford Photoshop (or even Photoshop Elements) then they should do so. I hope that this helps.

Another free on that is simpler than GIMP is irfanview at www.irfanview.com. It is more intuitive and easier than GIMP. If you have ever tried to wade through the GIMP documentation you will know what I mean!